Arizona Trail 2025: Days 14-21, Hot, Scorching Death

This article first appeared on The Trek on April 25, 2025.

This poor Canadian knew it might get hot, but there really was no way to prepare for it with snow on the ground. Day 1 on Miller Peak was warm, but nothing like this stretch! Yet the rewards were tremendous.

Day 14: Red Ridge Reroute and a Hard Lesson in Heat

The view down Red Ridge. See where it ends on the left? From the bottom we had to climb back up the ridge on the right.

We set out to descend Mount Lemmon. After a stiff climb, we anticipated a leisurely saunter downhill all day into Oracle. It was a nice temperature for Summerhaven, but that in retrospect should have been our warning: it would only get hotter.

First shock: the AZT had been rerouted from Oracle Ridge to Red Ridge. We didn’t really think about what that meant until we’re on it. First, it lengthened the road walk to the trailhead, but that was minor. Then it sent us downhill very rapidly through an old burn, which increased our exposure to the sun early and started taxing our hamstrings (and Cheers’ knees). The reward was a nice stream of flowing water at the bottom and a bit of history with an old mining camp we passed through.

The punishment was we had to climb back up to Oracle Ridge, nearly undoing all the descent.

The rest of the day became a slog, as we tried to conserve water and make it to a cattle tank at t end of the ridge. The sun was descending rapidly, and we began to grasp at ways to shorten the day: Hi Jinks Ranch had water but was unavailable for us to stay as the owner was out of town. We managed to stumble down to American Flag Trailhead and called a local trail angel for a lift to El Rancho Robles, which turned out to be a solid choice. One massive burrito later, we went to sleep in a bed for the second consecutive night full but tired.

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Day 15: Through Oracle State Park

We still had all of Oracle State Park to do, and our initial instinct was to just take it easy after two punishing days in a row (well, more like 6, of we include everything back to Colossal Cave, our easy day after the Tucson Zero). But we ended up marching in hot sun through the park to the underpass, up to Tiger Mine trailhead, then out to the first wash for the night. We camped with an experienced hiker there named Mud, from Hawaii.

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Day 16: Siesta Strategy and the Ant Invasion

Today was all about going from water source to water source. We knew our options would be limited and the weather would be hot so we decided to make sure when we stopped we could drink as much as we needed to rehydrate. Our first goal was Mountain View Tank which we made by 11am. We elected to siesta there and wait out the hottest part of the day. The shade of the tank was better than the feeble shade provided by desert shrubs.

We got going again around 3pm and hiked down to Beehive Well, which was set in a sheltered bowl. Dusk was falling fast, but I had a heck of a time siting my tent as ant nests were everywhere. About a hundred ants came over to investigate my camp stove, so as soon as I finished cooking I broke my cardinal rule and are inside my tent to escape the ants.

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Day 17: Night Hiking to the Wildlife Tank

We set out as early as we could, planning to get in some good miles before the heat and knowing we would siesta again to avoid the worst of it. We made it to Freeman Road water collector before 10, and settled in. Luckily the ground was comfortable around the collector and the bees restricted their patrols to the spigot itself, and were calm enough when we filled our bladders. We were joined by GoPro and Deadpool for most of the afternoon, who regaled us with stories of the joys of night hiking. We knew we would have to do a little because it would be a 10 mile push to the wildlife tank and leaving at 4 would mean an arrival 3 hours after sunset.

That is exactly what happened. The moon was almost full, but I have no idea how GoPro was able to see so well without a headlamp. I definitely needed it. Even with it I was stepping on rocks and stumbling around. And we felt like we missed out on the beautiful terrain: we knew we climbed through a pretty canyon but never saw it because of the darkness. We reached the tank and went straight to bed, planning to fill up on water in the morning.

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Day 18: Tortilla Mountains and True Trail Magic

Running the sun down once again to beat the heat

The wildlife tank was interesting to see and explore in the daylight. Early in the morning one night hiker cowboy camped nearby and another went by us, so for those who wanted to do big miles on the heat they were becoming night owls. But we did not like it and resigned to finding other ways to cover the hot miles.

We descended into some arroyos and found some good water from a spring that was dripping into a blue barrel with a spigot before filling a cow trough. A young guy named Parakeet showed up there, he had an interesting setup and seemed a little inexperienced but he had enough water.

Our day got tougher as we had to ascend ” the big hill” and traverse the Tortilla Mountains. This would prove to be the hottest day of this stretch, and the most shadeless. We tried to have lunch in the shade of a Palo Verde but it was very little help. My appetite disappeared and I developed rather explosive um… Rear issues. All I wanted was water and electrolytes. Coming down from the mountains we just focused on Florence Kelvin and the water Cache there. My thermometer hit 104 degrees. Our water in our bottles was so hot it tasted like hot shower water. When I got to the cache I just laid out my foam and sipped the slightly cooler water from the cache. My friends caught up and we were so spent we decided to forego the 2 more miles to Gila Trailhead. Just then the first true trail magic of our journey happened. A head popped out over the bank and said “Hey you guys hiking the AZT?”

“Yeah…”

“Want a cold beverage?”

James (center-right) is a true trail angel. If you hike through Kearney, show him the love.

The look on our faces could never have been replicated. A guy named James gave us cold drinks and took us to Buzzy’s for burgers, then dropped us at Jeff and Que’s for the night. Jeff gifted me with a wooden AZT “challenge coin” which is amazing. Most people don’t understand, but as a member of the military, I know how special this is and will display it with pride when I get back to work.

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Day 19: Along the Gila River

No rest for the wicked: we jumped back on trail early with help from James again, and attacked the hottest passage on the AZT: the Gila River. Stunning views were on display all day as we wandered up and down the hillsides above the Gila. The lush valley contrasted sharply with the desert sometimes only separated by feet. Many rumours have been floated this year about Norovirus from the river, but we drank from it (through our Sawyers), bathed our feet in it, and rinsed our clothes in it and suffered no ill effects. A rattlesnake sauntered by one of our watering points on the river but we didn’t question him so he had nothing to say to us. At another water stop a steer strolled up, had a drink, then disappeared whilst we siesta’ed. We finally set up camp on the edge of the river just past the low point of the AZT, so we could stage for the hot, dry climb up out of the valley to Superior the next day.

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Day 20: Climbing Toward Superior

Our day started out strangely: with a voice from across the river trying to figure out if it was safe to cross. The river was extremely muddy so we were concerned it was not safe, but the hiker ultimately resolved to try since backtracking would have added 24 miles to get to where we were. Luckily, the river was only thigh deep and we left them secure and ready for a nap since they had stayed up all night.

We all had lots of energy this morning, especially myself as the heat had subsided somewhat and I recovered my appetite the night before. We covered the first five miles of ascent easily then slowed down to admire the most stunning terrain (in our group’s opinion) on the trail so far. The sculpted rock, dramatic cliffs, perfect morning light all combined to take our breath away as we went.

Simply breathtaking climb up to Superior (the climb and the views)

Our goal was to reach the water collector at mile 10 of our day but we reached it around 1130 so we took a few hours to avoid the hot sun and considered our next move. We knew we were going to zero when we reached Superior but we thought rather than push and get into Superior late, then having to do everything in one day, to camp 5 or 6 miles out and then have an easy morning in, gaining an extra afternoon of rest. This turned out to be a great plan and we got to see more Gila monsters and several new varieties of cattle on the way to camp. A young hiker named Sleeves joined us that evening and we went to bed anticipating our rest (and the new shoes that awaited me in Superior).

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Day 21: The 300-Mile Mark and a Superior Zero

Hit the magic 300th mile just south of Picketpost!

Went exactly according to plan. An easy saunter into Picketpost Trailhead. Met my hiking partners’ parents. Brunch at Jalapeno’s in Superior. Dropping me off at MJ’s (the Trail Angel of the Year last year for good reason!). A shower, a resupply, helping MJ by driving the pickup car for some other hikers, then enjoying a Swiss Fondue feast prepared by a hiker from Switzerland for the 11 of us staying with MJ! What a finish to this brilliant, yet challenging section!